


Accidental Discoveries

by Zi_Night



Series: Elia Week [7]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Elia Fests, Elia Martell Centric, Gen, POV Elia Martell, The Knight of the Laughing Tree, Tourney at Harrenhal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-07
Updated: 2020-10-07
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:06:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26882629
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zi_Night/pseuds/Zi_Night
Summary: Day 7: Free Choice"When she looks up, she spots a young woman clinging to the branches of the tree, no doubt attempting to hide in the spare leaves. The girl, dressed in trousers and a tunic, is stretched farther out on the tree than she would recommend, hanging out over weaker branches instead of closer to the tree’s core. The girl’s dark hair tumbles over her shoulder and she finds herself looking into wide, grey eyes. She finds herself wondering why the girl, Lyanna Stark a voice that sounds like her mother whispers in her head, looks so concerned, until she sees the item in the girl’s hand."
Relationships: (Background) Elia Martell/Rhaegar Targaryen, Elia Martell & Brandon Stark, Elia Martell & Lyanna Stark
Series: Elia Week [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1950721
Comments: 6
Kudos: 39





	Accidental Discoveries

She didn’t mean to find the Knight of the Laughing Tree. She wasn’t looking for anything at all. Rhaenys liked being outside and she wanted some alone time with her daughter, so she thought going to the godswood would be a good compromise between those two wants.

She knows that the godswood is a place of worship for northerners and that there was a chance someone might be there, that there were more than enough northerners attending the tourney for the chance to be significant, but with the manhunt Aerys had ordered she was confident that the godswood would be empty. From what she had heard, just about every knight in the castle was out looking for the Knight of the Laughing Tree; either because they wanted the prestige of finding the knight, like Lord Robert Baratheon, or because they had been ordered to by their king, like her husband and the Kingsguard.

It was because of all the uproar around the knight that she wanted to be alone. She felt like no one else had noticed how _aggressive_ King Aerys was being. The whole kingdom was aware that the king was not a particularly effective king, that Lord Tywin had been the one truly running the kingdom up until he resigned, but it wasn’t until Aerys had arrived so unkempt to the tourney that people began to whisper of something more. The Kingsguard and the royal family were all aware that there was an irrationality to the king, they had all been subject to demands that made no sense and his rapid swings in mood, but she was beginning to notice something more.

The Kingsguard had all frowned at Aerys’s theory that it was Ser Jaime under the armor, it was obvious to anyone with eyes that the knight and Ser Jaime were of different builds, but she wasn’t sure if they had noticed the king’s viciousness when speaking about the knight. Of the inherent spitefulness of sending out his whole Kingsguard to hunt down the knight, something that was only done when dealing with matters of treason. Of the way Aerys had commanded the Kingsguard to defeat the knight in the jousts, as though, in his mind, it wasn’t a part of friendly sport but a part of some punishment he was in charge of. Rhaegar had taken them out of King’s Landing once she was well enough to travel after her pregnancy, but she was beginning to wonder if they had missed something in their absence. If the king’s current behavior was not a unique occurrence, but rather the continuation of a trend they had not noticed.

The worst part about these suspicions was that no one else seemed to notice how worrying it was. Both Oberyn and Ashara agreed that Aerys seemed to be more hostile than was appropriate, but neither could speak about how it reflected on the man’s overall character. When she had brought it up to her uncle, he had mentioned Aerys’s oscillating paranoia and how he was just grateful that Aerys had moved his paranoia off of Rhaegar, and by extension her. Lord Commander Hightower had told her that Aerys had always been exaggerative in his speech, but his frown made her feel like there was more that he wasn’t telling her. Rhaegar had been distracted since his father’s arrival and had only vaguely told her that he was trying to do something to address his father’s issues. Arthur had confessed to her that he was growing more suspicious about the man, but that Aerys’s hadn’t done anything in front of him to warrant that suspicion.

She was hoping for a break to clear her head. To help her grow less anxious and to give her the calm needed to piece this apart. She was hoping that watching her daughter frolic in nature would help her do that. Rhaenys loved being outside, crunching leaves under her feet and plucking flowers with her little fists. She thought that the godswood would be a good place for them to do that privately.

She doesn’t notice anything when they arrive. She follows the little stream in the wood towards the heart tree while carrying Rhaenys in her arms. Her little sun excitedly points and calls out the things they pass by. Rhaenys eagerly says the few words she knows and garbles through words she thinks she knows. She ends up doing much of the same, lining up her finger with whatever Rhaenys was pointing at and carefully enunciating the item’s name or color.

When they arrive at the heart tree, she makes sure not to settle in front of the tree’s face. The visage was upsetting as an adult, she couldn’t imagine how frightening it would be to a child. It is as she is circling the tree, that Rhaenys notices something. She’s not really paying attention when Rhaenys perks up suddenly, too busy looking for a place to sit that isn’t too dirty, but when Rhaenys lets out a cheery, “’Ello!” she casts her eyes around the space. When she doesn’t see anyone, she looks back at her daughter and sees her little arm pointed straight up in the air, waving her little hand excitedly. As she follows the line of Rhaenys’s arm and ends up seeing, what under different circumstances would have been, a comical sight.

When she looks up, she spots a young woman clinging to the branches of the tree, no doubt attempting to hide in the spare leaves. The girl, dressed in trousers and a tunic, is stretched farther out on the tree than she would recommend, hanging out over weaker branches instead of closer to the tree’s core. The girl’s dark hair tumbles over her shoulder and she finds herself looking into wide, grey eyes. She finds herself wondering why the girl, _Lyanna Stark_ a voice that sounds like her mother whispers in her head, looks so concerned, until she sees the item in the girl’s hand.

Caught in the girl’s outstretched hand, like she was trying to balance it on the end of the branch she is on, is a shield. A wooden shield that had a large white tree with a red laughing face painted on it. As her eyes track back to the girl’s face, Lyanna Stark lets out a rushed, “I can explain!”

Before she gets the chance to respond, there is the sound of plants rustling. At the sound, the girl finishes setting the shield on the branch and begins to scuttle off the tree. At an angle from her, a boy bursts out of the woods. The boy looks a lot like the girl but smaller, so she assumes that this is Benjen Stark. She notes that his voice is still high from youth as he calls out, “Ly, hurry up! Ned can only distract Bran-.“ When he sees her, he snaps his mouth closed. She was surprised the boy didn’t bite his tongue with how quickly he closed his mouth.

She doesn’t know what to say with how quickly things are devolving around her. She came here for some peace, not scandal. But the fear that she had noticed in Lyanna’s eyes and the fear that she can see in Benjen’s eyes make her think that scandal is exactly what she found. Rhaenys doesn’t seem to be suffering from her problem. Her daughter turns to the new arrival, raises her little hand to wave, and says, “’Ello!”

Benjen seems torn for a moment, before propriety wins out. “Hello,” he says, shyly waving back at her daughter.

She turns back around to look at Lyanna and finds the girl halfway down the tree. After a certain point, the girl seems to give up on climbing and drops onto the ground. She winces at the sound of the girl’s feet hitting the ground, Lyanna may be young but she knows that her ankles would have been very unhappy about a drop from that height, even at that age. The girl brushes off her knees and elbows before turning to look at her. Lyanna opens and closes her mouth a few times, _it seems like she hadn’t used the silence to think of a lie_ , before saying, “It looked like it was going to fall off.”

Lyanna winces once the lie is out of her mouth and she feels a sense of responsibility overtake her. She turns to look at Benjen and asks him, “Are you any better at lying?” The boy looks at her with wide eyes, before franticly shaking his head. “Right. Well then, let’s go.”

Lyanna Stark steps up beside her. She distantly notes that the girl is shorter than her. “Go where,” she asks.

Her younger brother hisses her nickname at her, likely at the unruly tone she was using to speak to the crown prince’s wife, but she can hear the undercurrent of wariness in the girl’s voice. While the girl’s intentions for taking on the disguise may have been noble, if her demands of her opponents were anything to go by, she seemed aware that her actions had resulted in unwanted attention.

She begins to walk in the direction that Benjen Stark burst out of. “Out of here and away from that,” she waves her hand in the vague direction of the shield.

There is a moment of hesitation, before two sets of footsteps race up to her. Lyanna gets in position to walk next to her, but Benjen decides to use his sister as a buffer. “You’re not going to tell anyone?” Lyanna’s wariness reads clear in her question. She wonders if Lyanna is so easy to read because the girl is young or if it’s because no one had taught her to hide it.

She thinks of Aerys and of how eager that man was to punish the knight. “No, I will not speak of this. And I suggest that you don’t either.”

Benjen peeks around his sister. “Then how will anyone know to find the shield?”

“Plenty of people come to the godswood. There is no need to call attention to yourselves.” The siblings turn to each other and she turns to Rhaenys to give them some privacy. She whispers an apology to her daughter for not letting her play in the dirt like they had planned. Rhaenys doesn’t seem to mind, she’s trying to curiously look at their current companions while also trying to melt into her chest. Her daughter was always curious, but Rhaenys was always the most curious when she was safely in her arms.

They are almost out of the godswood by the time the siblings stop whispering. She turns away from Rhaenys, to let them know that she is listening, but doesn’t say anything. She genuinely wants to help these children and she doesn’t want to scare them into distrusting her.

“Where are we going,” Lyanna asks. She notes that the girl has lost some of her wariness.

“I think it is time that I met the heir of House Stark.”

“Are you going to tell him,” Benjen asks anxiously.

She ignores Lyanna’s hissed “Ben” and airily says, “Tell him about what?” She pauses for effect and then says, “About how kind his siblings were to offer to guide me to him? Yes, I’ll be sure to mention that.” With that, Lyanna shoots her an appreciative look and Benjen nods quickly in relief. She knows how to manage older brothers and she doubts that Brandon Stark will be harder to charm than Doran, who was wise to her tricks.

The siblings lead her out of the walls of Harrenhal and out to where lords had set up their tents for the tourney. If she had wanted to, she could probably manage the mess of tents on her own but it was easier with a guide. Her companions didn’t have to squint up at flapping bits of cloth to try and tell if that banner was the white of House Stark of the white of some other house. Instead they walked with the purpose of people who knew exactly where they were going, never feeling the need to look up and check. In what feels like no time, they arrive at a large tent befitting House Stark’s status as a great house. She has to bite back a sigh when Lyanna marches in without announcing her presence.

For as much as she doesn’t want to surprise the Starks, there is something very interesting about seeing their unrestrained reactions. Both Brandon and Eddard Stark are sitting at an angle so that she can see both their faces when she walks through the tent flap. Eddard’s face is one of muted relief as he watches his sister come into the tent, but morphs into one of blatant surprise when he sees her behind Lyanna. Brandon seems to have been very amused by Eddard’s attempts at distracting him but his face twists with apprehension when he sees her.

The expression doesn’t last long because Brandon quickly stands from his chair and bows forward, his right hand pressed over his heart. “Princess Elia, I beg your pardon if my siblings have done anything to bother you and your daughter.” She’s heard quite a bit about Brandon Stark during these few days of the tourney, and almost none of it was flattering. The most rampant rumors were of his irreverent pride, so it really speaks to how much the man loves his siblings that he is willing to humble himself like this.

Lyanna stamps her foot and is about to defend herself, but she puts her hand on the girl’s shoulder to stop her. “They have done nothing of the sort. I am here because I thought it prudent to meet the heir of House Stark. And your siblings very kindly offered to escort me here.” Benjen very adamantly nods his head and Lyanna looks at her older brother smugly.

Brandon does not look like he entirely believes what she is saying, but he has the good sense not to ask any questions. “How… _gracious_ of them.” Out of the corner of her eye, she can see Lyanna stick her tongue out at her older brother and Benjen rub his neck self-consciously. She thinks Lyanna may be just as much of a spitfire as her younger brother.

Eddard stands from his chair and gestures towards his vacated seat. “Princess, would you like to take a seat?” She accepts the offered seat with a quiet “thank you.” She takes stock of Eddard as she sits down. She thinks he is the odd man out of the siblings, serious and reserved in a way the rest of his siblings are not. He still smiles and shakes Rhaenys’s hand when she sticks out her fist at him.

“Can we get you anything,” Brandon asks as he sits back down. “Tea? Water? Wine?”

“Jerky,” she says, pulling Rhaenys’s other fist out of her mouth. “Her teeth are coming in.”

“Ned, get the princess what she asked for.” Eddard lets go of her daughter’s hand to do as his brother commanded. He hands Rhaenys a strip of jerky and her daughter immediately puts it in her mouth. As she settles her daughter, Brandon turns to his siblings and says, “Now Princess Elia said she was here to speak with me, so unless she says otherwise, there is no need for the rest of you to be here.” She does not contradict the man, so the rest of the Starks leave them to their talks.

It begins somewhat hesitantly, with each of them trying to feel out what the other wants. She’s impressed by the level of tact Brandon can manage and she absently wonders if he sent his siblings away to hide this skill. She also wonders if the rumors about Brandon’s wildness are a bit like the rumors of her fragility, exaggerated to make accomplishing things easier. That’s not to say that Brandon is not brash and prideful, but there is more attention to his words than his reputation would suggest.

As their conversations come to an end, Rhaenys was only willing to chew on jerky for so long, Brandon makes a point of saying. “Princess, I would like to thank you. I don’t know what my siblings did to catch your attention, but I appreciate you helping them out of whatever it was.”

“It was nothing Lord Stark, there is no need for you to be concerned.”

Brandon hums. She doesn’t think he knows what exactly his siblings had done, but she was pretty sure he had some precise suspicions. “Still, please consider me in your debt if you ever find yourself in need of something.”


End file.
